What actions will be taken next are anybody’s guess, but it’s made for a fascinating read – and it’s left me pretty much wanting to open a vein and just let it drain dry so as to avoid the election all together, and check out of this whole political scene once and for all.

Yes. It’s gotten that bad. And it’s discouraging to be reminded that as bad as it’s gotten, we’ve failed to keep our misery stateside.

Your political and cultural landscape, the landscape produced to a great extent in California and all across your nation affect me. I don’t mean in the ordinary McDonalds, 7-Eleven, Bush-is-bad kinda way. I mean it really, actually, directly affects me and is a vital and significant force in shaping my life and that of my friends and family. Your politics are my politics.

Our policies, our economy, our jobs, our music, our youth culture, our military situation. All these depend on the US. And there are more subtle changes effected over the past couple of years. An increased rate of tension towards the Moslem population. A hardness to the tone we take when we talk about them. A culture of fear. A sudden pervasive fear of terrorism which has suddenly made itself known, despite the fact that nobody has ever died in an act of terrorism in Norway. An unwillingness to pay taxes, a lessening of the degree of civic-mindedness and the ideals of public service.

All these things can be traced back to attitudes that are generated in and by the Bush administration, and the two preceding Republican governments. Our right wing wants to be like your right wing. They take after it. With worry I see that they are succeeding in this. Many of the things which worked for the Republican Party in the US are working for our xenophobic right-wing populist Progress Party now. Your decisions affect us both directly and indirectly.